Williams: We are happy with the progress we are making

Williams reports from day 2 of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Jerez de la Frontera, in southern Spain, on Wednesday.

Driver: Valtteri Bottas

Chassis / Engine: FW36-01 / PU106A Hybrid

Location: Jerez de la Frontera 4.428km

Objectives: New component, systems and reliability checks

Weather: Wet in the morning, dry and cool in the afternoon

Maximum air & track temps: 16ºC / 17ºC

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We started the day doing some work on the new Pirelli Intermediate tyres as it wasn’t wet enough for the Full Wet tyres. We were then doing some development work on our braking system and making some changes over lunch and we were going well on the hard tyres this afternoon as the track dried out. However, we had to stop early due a problem with the rear suspension. Valtteri radioed in to say he felt something strange with the rear and we could also see something in the data, so we brought him in as a precautionary measure to check the car over. Obviously we’d like to do more laps but we are happy with the progress we are making.

Valtteri Bottas: Testing this week is about checking all the new systems more than outright performance so problems are expected, but we’ve been solving each one as it has come up. We completed some running in the wet this morning to gather some data on the intermediate tyres and then clocked up some more laps in the dry this afternoon and my first impression of the car is positive. Unfortunately we had to finish the day slightly early though. I felt something different with the rear of the car so the team called me straight back in to check it over. We are much wiser than we were yesterday and have a better understanding of the car already and so I’m looking forward to the next time I can get behind the wheel. (Williams)